The invention relates to a jet strip for producing very fine liquid streams for jet weaving of endless or finite fibers in webs of goods made of manmade or natural fibers in nonwovens, tissues, fabrics, or knits, which is preferably mounted in a fluid-tight manner in a nozzle beam that extends transversely to the traveling web of goods and corresponds in its length to the width of the web; a liquid pressure of up to 1000 bars is produced in the nozzle beam which presses the jet strip against a wall of the nozzle beam provided with a through-flow slot; a plurality of tiny holes with diameters of 0.08-0.15 mm are provided at a distance of 20-128 hpi apart, namely very close together, in the jet strip to produce the liquid jets; a hard metal or a ceramic, or sapphire, is selected as the material for the jet strip or the individual nozzle bodies in the jet strip, said material having the same or similar physical properties; and the jet strip or the individual nozzle bodies is supported over its surface by another material such as stainless steel.
A jet strip is known for example from EP-A-0 725 175. It extends over a large working width and is generally made of a thin sheet of stainless steel with holes produced mechanically for example. This jet strip or the holes produced therein has a geometry that has proven its worth in practice and continues to be improved, but which has only a short service life. The walls of the nozzle holes which individually are up to 0.1 mm in diameter must be extremely smooth so that the holes must be drilled or punched. The geometry of the holes is particularly important for formation of the water jet, so that in general a nozzle cross section that forms the water jet is followed by a diffuse conical part over the height of the nozzle hole; also so as not to break up the water jet once formed on the way to the end of the hole by friction against the walls of the hole. Because higher and higher water pressures are demanded and because of the continuous abrasion, the holes rapidly become clogged at the edges. This produces water jets that are neither sharp nor round, and deliver an unsatisfactory amount of energy in dynamic treatment of the web of goods.
DE-A-199 41 729 discloses another type of jet strip according to the species that avoids the above-mentioned problems. Each water jet is now produced by an individual nozzle body which is made of an extremely hard material and is supported only on the jet strip. Such nozzle bodies can be made of a sapphire for example, from which a nozzle hole with an extremely smooth wall can be made which exhibits no wear phenomena even after lengthy use at high water pressures. However, mounting the individual nozzle bodies on such a jet strip is no simple matter. In particular there is a risk that the nozzle bodies will not be exactly perpendicular to the lengthwise direction of the jet strip and that under a bending stress of the long jet strip, for example due to a stronger contact, they will become detached therefrom.